Western Cape High Court orders McKenzie to declare financial records

The Patriotic Alliance (PA) has described as flawed the Western Cape High Court order directing its leader Gayton McKenzie to declare certain financial records and transactions of funds raised during his tenure as the mayor of the Central Karoo District Municipality.

An investigation was launched after McKenzie made public utterances promising to undertake certain service delivery initiatives within the first 100 days of his term of office as mayor.

He related to funds he had raised during a Sandton event, held and attended by him in his capacity as Central Karoo municipality mayor.

McKenzie said the provincial Environmental Affairs and Development Planning department did not have the funds to materialise the commitment he made and so he proceeded with his fundraising initiatives to fulfil the promises. He submitted that the initiatives were his own personal projects.

For the event called “Bring New Life to the Desert” held on May 21, 2022, in the Sandton Hotel, Benmore Room, cost per table was R20 000, cost per person at R2 000 and the District Mayoral table at R100 000.

In August last year, acting in terms of s 106(1)(b) of the Systems Act read with section 7 of the Monitoring Act, local government MEC Anton Bredell designated two investigators “to investigate allegations of maladministration, fraud, corruption and other serious malpractices” at the municipality.

Western Cape High Court Justice Rosheni Allie, said: “(The) contentions that (McKenzie) collected funds outside of the municipality’s structures and used them without channelling them to the municipality’s coffers, do not assist him since on his own admission, he used those funds to discharge the municipality’s obligations on municipal land and in furtherance of the discharge of his duties as municipal mayor. That conduct, therefore, falls within the mandate of the investigators to investigate municipal fraud, corruption and maladministration in the Municipality.”

“When a public office bearer dishes out largesse, it has the potential to lead to the creation of client/patron relationships. It is therefore imperative that respondents account for the use of funds in furtherance of the municipality’s objectives, even if a portion of those funds were the personal funds of any of them,” said Allie.

In a statement the PA said they were studying the “flawed high court ruling”.

According to the statement, McKenzie has “always been willing to share this information, provided that certain limited documents and private bank statements are redacted to protect the privacy of individuals who have no relation to the matter in question”.

The PA’s head of legal, Eugene Botha, said: “There is, however, clear factual inaccuracy of the actual court order in some sections of the media.”

“The judgment centres on an order instructing the third to sixth respondents to share certain limited documents and private bank statements, to be redacted…At this stage we are concerned by some of the patent errors of fact in the judgment such as Honourable Judge Allie stating that the tickets to a gala dinner fundraiser were R200 000 per ticket, which is clearly not correct,” said Botha.

Provincial DA leader Tertuis Simmers welcomed the ruling and said “McKenzie will soon learn that corruption does not pay off”.

“McKenzie promised that these funds are earmarked for improving service delivery and improving the lives of residents, but he resigned as mayor soon afterwards, leaving residents in the lurch. This is why Beaufort West voters punished McKenzie at the polls last week, clearly showing him that his time is up. If the 2024 elections were a local election, the DA would have won an outright majority in Beaufort West, with a clear mandate to rescue the municipality. The DA demands that McKenzie and the PA abide by the high court ruling and urgently account for the monies in question,” said Simmers.

Cape Times